So we do best in athletic events (ergo, “hunting a paper target”) when we face our prey. For archers this means turning the face to the target as much as possible. This can be hard for several reasons, all of which are based in the body’s natural design.

First, joints are only as flexible in range of motion as the owner makes them. If you carefully and cautiously press your range, usually the joint will gain in range. We call it “stretching”, and it must be done carefully to avoid microtearing muscles (or even MACRO TEARING!)

What is the best way to stretch your neck’s range of motion – improve the tendons, ligaments, muscles so they allow you to zero in on your prey better? Swimming. The crawl, where you float face down, flail away with your arms while you kick crazily, and periodically ROLL YOUR HEAD on your spinal axis to the side for a breath.

You need to roll your head to the same side you look to when shooting: Right hand archers should breath from their LEFT side. Every breath is an opportunity to stretch your joints just a little, to become more comfortable doing this. Plus your athlete is cross-training, a great thing.

Incidentally, most people have a favored side, a great range of motion, to one side or the other. Why? After a lot of reflection I concluded that people sleep on the stomach at least a little every night, some much more so. And when on the stomach the head must roll to one side if you don’t want to suffocate. This gives you the same repetitions as swimming does. Try it and see if you don’t feel a tightness sooner to one side or the other as you look first left, then right, as far as you can.

OK, one last and fundamental reason your athlete is having trouble seeing the aperture while wearing glasses because the frame is “right in the way”. The neck vertebra (“cervical”) are different than the other vertebra of the spine in one particular way. They interlock in a way that increases stability and lessens the chance of breaking said neck.

Image the head tilting forward (to the left in the picture) and see how the bones interlock but have room to arch. But not so much to the back(right side of pic), nor in a rotational way unless tilted to the left (forward). Credt: eSpine

Want to verify this? Assume a shooting stance, OR, just sit where you are but sit up, and raise your head as though you are putting your nose just a little up, to contact the bowstring, and turn your head towards the target and draw your airbow. Turn your head as much as possible to the target till you reach your limit. NOW, drop your nose down about an inch, and carefully observe how much more further you suddenly can turn your head in an easier way! An inch? maybe more? Well past where the eyeglass frame would be! It will be “more” because the spurs of bone in the cervical vetebrae interlock more when your head is tilted back/up than when it is slightly rocked forward/down. Don’t allow the athlete to “nose-down” too far, of course.

One fact that USAA National Head Coach Kisik Lee identified during the implementation of his shooting method was that elite and accomplished archers who had never been able to wear glasses because the frame got in the way, were suddenly able to enjoy sunglasses. They could because he teaches a method that is consistent with the importance of facing your prey, facing the target.

Every USAA coach will already know this, but for the rest: When your eyes are rotated to the extreme edge of your orbits, either left or right, your nervous system cannot, will not, maintain the same control of your muscles. While shooting a bow, if you look out of the corner of your eye, in other words, you will be weaker and holding the string to anchor will actually be harder for you. Ask a USAA coach to show you proof – it’s fun/funny.

Essentially, my position is that if someone complains about the frames being in the way or the edge of the glass distorting the target, the problem is NOT with the glasses, it is with the coach failing to teach the athlete a proper technique for getting the head into a “Prey/predator” relationship with the target. We are predators. When shooting a bow, be like the lion sighting in on the antelope. Or, like your cat looking at a bird through the window – their intensity can be incredibly obvious, and they NEVER watch a prey out of the corner of their eyes. With good, natural reason.

SO swim some laps breathing out of the correct side. Drop the chin just a little. Push the range a little at a time, and soon you will be seeing clearly through your glasses. Just don’t make them so dark you can’t see the target!